I’m sitting here nervously writing this blog entry whilst I’m very impatiently waiting for my oven to heat up to 180°C. “Why?” you may ask. Obviously it’s to place my thousand-dollar computer circuit board into the heated box in an attempt to fix an undiagnosed mystery problem by facilitating the reflow of soldered parts, thus saving me a few dollars on a professional repair job and allowing me to write this potentially award winning blog entry. Makes sense, right?
So it all started when I decided that I wanted to have a look at the old data I had obtained from my thesis project. I proceed to turn on my trusty old MacBook and discover that it’s completely out of battery. No big deal, the thing has been sitting unused for a good two years or so. I put the charger cord in and give it a few hours to top up the flattened battery.
Again, I try turning it on. This time I hear the fans and hard drive start up, but that’s about it. Nothing on the screen, no start up chimes, no dialogue in some alien computer language alerting me to the problems of the need to re-route an optical PCIB Motherboard with a faulty version 2.1 CMOS causing a sporadic frequency modulation in the… keyboard. You know, that old chestnut.
Yep, most important project of my research career and I didn’t have it backed up in multiple locations. Genius. However, this blog entry isn’t about my shortcomings as a researcher, it’s about my ability to think outside of the box as an unwavering problem solver! So I have a problem with a MacBook that wont start up, where does one head? YouTube, of course, the untapped resource compiled by a generation of geniuses. Casually scrolling through the Fail of the Week posts I stumble upon a ‘solution’ to the same problem I’m having with my MacBook – “Put it in the oven” he says. And so it begins…
In relation to the image above; On the left we see an environmental protection agenda riddled MacBook unknowingly about to undergo major surgery. The image on the right was taken midway through said surgery. If one looks close enough, one can see the incredibly professional and infallible method the surgeon uses to recall where each screw, tab, lever, key and rubber stopper goes. Like I said earlier – Genius…
Now this is the part of the story where the recommended and definitely proven repairs of a damaged MacBook might differ from how they’d do it at your local Apple store. The next step of this recipe is to preheat your oven to 180°C and prepare a foil stand for your very expensive and essential piece of the MacBook puzzle. I give you Exhibit A to the left here – Flawless use of aluminium.
Next, I place my fancy looking circuit board on my even fancier looking foil platform, put it on a baking tray and simply slide it into the very hot oven. Casual as. Then comes the wait… The nerve wracking, completely focused, agonising wait. I chose seven minutes as my stop point. Seemed like if the pro’s were going to do something similar, then naturally this would be the time that they would select.
This is the point of the surgery where I’m glad I’m such a stickler for being a meticulous anal guy (wow, that sentence sounded much better in my head). I’m talking about my piece of paper with all my screws and bits on it! Moving away from the crude puns, I started stuffing screws and parts back into the dirty gaping case. Many of them wouldn’t quite fit, so I forcefully thrust and pushed my hardest and, even though the MacBook made a few funny sounds, I persisted and achieved my goal.
As every anxious surgery recipient knows, it’s excruciating waiting for the surgeon to reappear to utter that much sought after phrase:
“The surgery went exactly as I planned!”
Well I wasn’t going to let my little damaged MacBook down. As soon as I finished reassembling him I promptly powered him back up to reap the fruits of my baking labour! This is the result…
Needless to say – I now own an expensive door stop/car stand/frisbee/replacement shovel head/chopping board…
Peace,
Davey
Away and the Bay 